Why were the Israelites Chosen? – Intrinsic vs.Extrinsic Holiness

Deuteronomy (Devarim) 7:6–11

Context to the biblical text: Throughout Devarim, Moshe calls on the people, just prior to his death, to obey God’s commandments after they enter the Land of Israel. In this section, he warns the Israelites against the danger of complacency because of their status as the “Chosen People.” He is concerned they may mistakenly think that since they are God’s chosen ones they are automatically entitled to the blessings of the Land. In this context, Moshe offers critical insights into the reasons for, and the meaning of, their election by God and their receipt of the land.

Reason for chosenness in these verses: Moshe tells the people that God did not choose them because of their own characteristics or achievements, and so they should not attribute their election to their own merit. Rather, “it was because the Lord favored you and kept the oath He made to your fathers that the Lord freed you . . ..” In other words, they were chosen by virtue of the fact that God loved them (for reasons unexplained), and by virtue of the promise God made to their forefathers with whom God established a special relationship (covenant). The first utterance of this promise came to Avraham in the form of a charge and pledge recorded in the book of Bereshit. There, God promises Avraham posterity (numerous descendants) and territory (the Land of Israel). These promises are given initially in the context of berakhot (blessings) in which God was to be the benefactor and Avraham the beneficiary (Bereshit 12:1–3). It was to be a one-sided affair: God will be active and Avraham passive.

Chosenness involves Mutuality: In the second instance, God made these promises to Avraham in the context of a berit (ברְִּית), a covenant. A covenant is an agreement, a pact, or a treaty. All of these imply some degree of mutuality (Bereshit 17:3–11). Thus the promises to Avraham required some obligation or responsibility on his part. Chosenness does include privileges, but it also involves duties and responsibilities.

Focus of this lesson: In other lessons in this House the privileges and responsibilities that go with the status of “chosen people” will be explored, as well as what they were chosen for. In this lesson we will focus more on why God chose the Israelites, addressing the question of whether there is an intrinsic holiness that defines membership of the Jewish people and explains its chosenness, or does chosenness indicate an extrinsic potential for holiness dependant on a commitment to personal ethics and behaviour and national mission?

Rabbi Yehuda HaLevi, Kuzari 1:95

Background to the text: The Kuzari, completed in 1140, is one of the most important works of medieval Jewish philosophy. Written by Rabbi yehuda HaLevi, the Spanish poet and philosopher, was originally written in Arabic, and takes the form of a dialogue between a rabbi and the King of the Khazars, a mythologized personality who was searching for the true religion for his people to convert to. There is some debate among historians whether there ever was a people called the Khazars who converted to Judaism. 

Yehuda HaLevi’s approach to “chosenness”: In the Kuzari, HaLevi often takes a mystical anti-philosophical stance on many issues, and some argue that this influenced the later rise of the non-rationalist kabbalah movement. The excerpt found here is an example of this. The Kuzari presents an approach to “chosenness” that revolves around a spiritual superiority that is intrinsic to the Jewish people. It traces this ‘spiritual essence’ from the first human created, Adam, who had a perfect soul, passed on to each generation through an elected individual, from Adam through ten generations to Noach, and a further ten generations to Abraham. Abraham passed this ‘spiritual essence’ to the chosen child Isaac (to the exclusion of Abraham’s other children), who passed it on to his child who was ‘chosen’, Jacob (to the exclusion of Esau). Then, for the first time in history, all of the next generation received the spiritual essence, and from there we have a ‘chosen nation’, all descended from the children of Jacob.

Intrinsic Holiness exclusive to Jewish People: According to the Kuzari, the Jewish people have been chosen because of an intrinsic ‘holiness’ and spiritual essence, to the exclusion of all other peoples. Although there are individual Jews who chose in every generation to lead a lifestyle that is antithetical to the Jewish spiritual superiority, they still have the Jewish spiritual essence at their core, and transfer it to the next generation (almost like a spiritual gene that in some generations are recessive). As we will see, there are important medieval Jewish philosophers who disagree with this approach, most important of whom is the Rambam.

Maimonides (Rambam), Iggeret Teiman (Epistle to the Jews of Yemen)

Background to the text: Rambam, also a Spanish medieval Jewish philosopher (who lived a generation after Judah HaLevi)  was arguably the most prominent and important Jewish philosopher of that time. He was a supreme rationalist (he was heavily influenced by Aristotelean and Arab Muslim philosophy) and was often in opposition to the more mystical approach taken by the Kuzari.

This quote comes from a series of communications between the Rambam and Yemenite Jewry in 1173/4. The letter was in response to a letter he received from a rabbinic leader in Yemen, Rabbi Ya’akov ben Nathanael ibn al-Fayyumi, who asked his advice in light of the religious persecution facing the community, and the rise of a false-Messiah who was preaching a syncretistic religion combining Judaism and Islam. In the letter Rambam encourages the community to continue their strict adherence to Jewish custom and law, explaining that this is the essence of what makes Jews different from other nations, and is the basis for their position as a “chosen people”.

Extrinsic Holiness through performance of mitzvot: In effect, Rambam explains that the only thing that distinguishes the Jew from the non-Jew is the mitzvot they were given by God, as a blessing because of the relationship and covenant God had with the forefathers. This is an extrinsic holiness dependent on commitment to the observing of the commandments and fulfillment of the people’s side of the covenant. 

Rabbi Jill Jacobs, Traditional Views of Jewish Chosenness

Jacob’s summary of Halevi’s position on Chosenness: Jacobs presents an overview of the positions we have seen on chosenness, of Rabbi Yehudah HaLevi and the Rambam. She emphasises that for HaLevi, “the Jews are inherently different from other people.” What makes them different is this quality God had placed in the first human being and was inherited by some of his descendants, including Avraham. It is only by virtue of the Israelites possessing this quality that God established the covenant with them. The Israelites have no active role in entering the covenant with God. Performance of the mitzvot does not assure a Jew a role in the covenant, it only helps enhance the “divine quality” inherent in the Jew.

Jacob summary of Rambam’s position on Chosenness: Rambam makes very little mention of the idea that the Jews are chosen. Several of his positions about the status of the Jew relative to a non-Jew become clear when studying his writings, and Jacobs alludes to two of these in this text. The first is that Avraham was selected by God because Avraham first discovered God. It could have been anyone, but it happened to be Avraham, and this led to the selection of his descendants, the Israelites. A second position referred to here by Jacobs is the idea noted repeatedly by Rambam in his writings that any person, whether Jew or non-Jew, can attain the highest spiritual levels, even reaching the level of prophecy. He does not see the Jew as having any inherent quality to set them apart from the other peoples of the world. It is only through their performance of the mitzvot that they actualize their being the “Chosen People.” 

As Rabbi Micah Goodman puts it, for Rambam, it is not that Jews are superior to other peoples, it is that the Torah, with its mitzvot, is superior to other systems of law and faith. 

Summarizing the debate: Jacobs summarizes the debate succinctly by stating that “the Jews are the chosen people either as a result of a unilateral – and seemingly arbitrary – divine decision, or as the result of an active decision on their part to initiate a relationship with God.” This active decision was first demonstrated by Avraham when he chose to respond to God’s call (Bereshit 12:1, 4). 

Rabbi Yehuda HaLevi, Kuzari 1:95
(1075–1141) Poet and philosopher in Muslim Spain. The Kuzari was originally written in Arabic